Infusion ports for the infusion and/or withdrawal of fluids from a patient are well-known, secured to the proximal end of an implanted catheter. These ports are typically used for drug infusion or small amounts of blood withdrawal, where large flows of fluid are not required. The ports are assemblies of a needle-impenetrable housing with a discharge port in fluid communication with the catheter and the reservoir within the port housing, and provide a subcutaneous self-sealing septum that defines an access site for multiple needle sticks through the covering skin tissue of the patient, through the septum and into the reservoir, without the need to continuously search for new access sites. An example of such a port is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2007/0270770.
Such a venous access port assembly is implanted subcutaneously in the patient, and the catheter affixed thereto is inserted into the vasculature of the patient. For subcutaneous implanting of the assembly, a pocket is surgically created by the practitioner under the skin of the patient adjacent the incision into the blood vessel where the catheter enters the vessel. Some such ports are known to be provided with shovel-like protuberances on their proximal ends, opposite the discharge port, that assist in creating the subcutaneous pocket when urged into the incision into the skin in a direction away from the incision into the blood vessel through which the catheter enters the blood vessel.
It is desired to provide a venous access port that is easy to insert into the subcutaneous pocket.